USA > Pennsylvania > Berks County > The story of Berks County (Pennsylvania) > Part 3
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The Indian chiefs sat in front with their advisors; behind them sat the young men and warriors; and beyond these sat the women. The Great Chief, Tominend, the most royal looking of them all, sat in the center of this gathering, and was the leader and spokesman who talked to Penn through an interpreter. He had on his head a crown upon which was fixed a buffalo horn. This was a sign of power which made the place sacred and the persons secure. No historian has found an authentic record of this treaty, but all are willing to consider it as one of the most glorious that has ever been made.
They agreed with each other to live as brothers; the Indians to live in love with Penn and his children as long as the sun and moon should give light. No written words were taken and no oath was required. The treaty was kept unbroken until long after those who had made it had passed away. When in later years an Indian wished to give the highest praise to a white man he would say, "He is like William Penn."
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
The elm tree under which the treaty was made was blown down in 1810 and a beautiful monument now marks the spot.
Penn's work and character. After the treaty with the Indians Penn arranged a wise government for his colony. The Germans, the Swedes and the Dutch came in great numbers. Penn was in the colony for several years only. While in England he lost his wife, his eldest son and his fortune. During his long stay his colony forgot their love for "Father Penn" and, though he was grieved at their coolness toward him, he gave them the best government that was to be found in the colonies.
He died thirty-seven years after the colony had been founded, having spent but four of these years in America. His colony he willed to his three sons, John, Thomas and Richard, and these, with their successors, held it until the Revolution.
The Germans. Penn offered religious freedom to all who were oppressed and his colony soon became the asylum for those who were persecuted. Penn's mother was a German and he, in company with George Fox and several others, went to Germany, preaching the Quaker doctrine of "inner light" and advertising for colonists for the "holy experiment." The Mennonites in the Rhine countries had been persecuted for centuries, and they decided to brave the dangers of the sea for a land of freedom of conscience. They had already settled Germantown before Penn arrived.
Francis Daniel Pastorious, Whittier's "Pennsylvania Pilgrim," for a long tiine lived in a cave. He was a well educated man who could read six or seven languages and knew science, philosophy and religion. William Rittenhouse, in 1690, built the first paper mill in America.
Those of the Germans who were mechanics were good ones. When an apprentice had completed his trade, before he could set up a business of his own in any location, he had to travel from place to place. This gave him an opportunity to learn to know people and to become skilled in his trade. They were experienced hands in various employments and had much to do with the prosperity of the county.
The first group of German settlers to reach Berks County arrived in Oley in 1712 and settled along the Manatawny Creek. These
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EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES
came northward on the east side of the Schuylkill from Germantown. Another group of German settlers entered the county from New York. coming south on the Susquehanna and castward into the Tulpekocken section, settling in the vicinity of Womelsdorf. Among this group was Conrad Weiser, who had crossed the ocean in the ship Sara Maria with his father. By 1752 the Germans were far more numerous than all the other settlers combined. Though most numer- ous, as long as the Penns were in control. they did not exert the greatest influence. Many of these Germans were educated men, who had a knowledge of ancient and modern languages as well as art and music. SARA MARIA. They made almanacs and school books. They settled the best lands and there built homes, churches and school houses.
So many of the Germans came from Palatinate that the name Palatines was soon given to them all. Many of them were too poor to pay their passage across the sea. Children were often pledged in this way by their par- ents. They were thus bound to service for a term of years and were called Redemptioners.
GERMAN COUNTRY MAN AND WOMAN OF THAT TIME.
It was these Germans who were first to suggest the abolition of slavery in America. In 1688, under the direction of Pastorious, they sent a petition to the yearly meeting of Friends saying that it was un-Christian to buy and sell negroes.
Redemptioners. Many persons living in England, Ireland and Germany were poor. They learned of the "holy experiment" through Penn's advertising. but were too poor to pay their passage over the sea. Agents of various sailing companies would usually contract to bring them over. furnish them food for the voyage and whatever else
38
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
they might need, on condition that upon arrival in America the agents might have the right to sell their labor for a certain number of years to pay the cost of the transportation. Very many laborers were transferred in this way just before the Revolution. After the system had been in operation for some time, laws were passed mak- ing the matter legal.
The amount paid varied. Some were sold for ten pounds at five years' service. Masters holding them were regarded as holding property that was subject to taxation. The usual terms of sale depended upon the health, strength, age and ability of the party sold. Boys and girls had to serve from five to six years, or until they became twenty-one years of age. Children under five years of age could not be sold; they were given to whoever would agree to keep them until they were twenty-one. Humble, indeed, was the position which these redemptioners occupied, but from their ranks have sprung some of the most influential people of the state and the county.
Some of the agents drove these redemptioners in gangs through the county to sell them to the farmers. A certain young Irishman one day managed to secure his freedom. He had schemed so that he was the last of the gang to be sold. He and his master stayed at a hotel. In the morning the Irishman got up, sold his master to the landlord, and put the money into his pocket. Before leaving he told the purchaser. that though rather clever in other respects, the fellow just bought was inclined to be saucy and an inveterate liar; that he had even at times tried to represent himself as master and might do so again. The old record does not say how the land- lord managed the saucy servant.
The following is the case of another redemptioner: George Heckler was born in Germany, 1736. He was apprenticed to learn the tailoring trade; becoming free at eighteen, he decided to go to America. Being too poor to pay his passage, he was sold by the captain to serve three years as a redemptioner. At the end of three years he became a hired man and soon married the daughter of a well-to-do farmer, Peter Freed. In 1785 he purchased his father- in-law's farm of two hundred and forty-three acres for two thousand
39
EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES
pounds. His estate was valued at between thirty and forty thou- sand dollars at his death.
The old court records reveal many similar cases, their number being somewhat small owing to the fact that some of the Berks County farmers were far- ther removed from Phila- delphia and New York, the usual landing places. It was these and their de- scendants who cleared the forests, improved the soil, erected buildings, laid out the roads and became the fathers of the generation of men who made Brandy- wine, Valley Forge and A SETTLER'S HOME. Yorktown possible, and left to us a glorious record of achievement that we may well try our best to imitate.
The Welsh. Before 1700, the Welsh had purchased from Penn while in England, a tract of land containing 40,000 acres to be se- lected in Pennsylvania. They selected this tract on the west side of the Schuylkill. They came into Berks County from the south through Chester even before the tract had been purchased from the Indians. The territory was purchased from the Indians in 1752. and after this they came in large numbers. Before 1740 a large number of them had already made homes for themselves beyond the present county line. They were quite aggressive and three townships bear names that indicate Welsh origin. They are Caernarvon. Cumru, and Brecknock.
Considerable land was taken up by them along the Cacoosing and Wyomissing Creeks. Some of the tracts contained as high as twenty thousand acres. They used the water power of the streams to manufacture gun barrels, files, flour and oil.
Their farms were south of South Mountain and west of the Schuylkill, though they gradually spread themselves farther and far-
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THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
ther up the river during the fifty years that followed their first settle- ment. They were not active in politics, but aided greatly in the or- ganization of a new county.
William Penn's doctor was a Welshman, named Thomas Winn, who came with Penn in the ship Welcome. Washington's doctor was his grandson. Many of the physicians of the colonies were Welsh. Most of them were either Friends or Baptists. Though at first they could not understand English they soon adopted the language and we have but few Welsh words in our English to-day, and but few places that have Welsh names.
Other nationalities. Many of the carly immigrants were Huguenots, who had been encouraged by Penn to emigrate from France to Pennsylvania. Many of them settled east of the Schuylkill. They intended to cultivate grapes "up the Schuylkill," but they went to Lancaster County where they were heartily welcomed by the Delaware Indians. It was the descend- ants of these families who settled in Berks County.
The Scotch-Irish were people who went from Scotland to Ireiand. In religion they were Presbyterians and they came to Pennsylvania because of its religious liberty after the death of the Penns. They generally went to the west, while the Germans ivent north. It was the Scotch-Irish who usually were between the settlers and the Indians and during the French and Indian war they had to face many a fatal attack.
There were some negroes in colonial days. They were usual- ly in the service of the men who were engaged in the iron busi- ness.
Hebrews resided in Reading from its earliest days. They have been engaged almost exclusively in trading or business of some kind.
Three great groups. In all these studies as to where the vari- ous nationalities located, it must after all not be forgotten that these' general facts relating to colonial settlements in Pennsyl- vania remain true.
There are three great groups of people who laid the founda- tion of the future state. These were the Quakers, the Germans and the Scotch-Irish.
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EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HOMES
The Quakers confined themselves to Philadelphia and vicin- ity remaining within a radius of about thirty-five miles. They gave themselves up to manufacture and commerce in Philadelphia and agriculture in Delaware. Chester. Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Beyond the Quakers in a belt of about fifty or more miles we find the Germans, who were the successful farmers of Berks Lancaster and Cumberland Counties. They built the" schools and churches, cultivated the soil most successfully, and established many of the manufacturing industries in the Schuyl- kill valley. They also developed a most excellent German-Ameri can Literature and had a home life that was largely influential in molding the ideals and the religious standard of later colonial days.
Beyond the Germans, toward the valleys of the Blue and Allegheny Mountains, located the . Scotch-Irish who were the sturdy pioneers on the verge of civilization. They repelled the Indian attacks and usually provoked them by their restless haste to possess the Indians' lands. also established Presbyterian churches and school houses in nearly every valley and upon many of the hills in the interior of the state.
Whether we are descendants of the Swedes, the Germans. the French. the English or the Scotch-Irish, let us always be good citizens, with "The union of hearts and the union of hands, and the flag of our Union forever!"
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CHAPTER III.
PURCHASES AND ORGANIZATION.
The territory included in Berks County was freed from the Indian claims principally by the purchase of 1732. There is one Indian sale that is especially important because of the effect it had in making the natives angry and dissatisfied ; a description of it follows :
The walking purchase. In one of the purchases of land by Penn from the Indians it was agreed that the tract should extend as far as a man could walk in three days. To take this walk Penn set out with several of his friends and a number of Indian chiefs. At the end of a day and a half they had gone thirty miles. Near the mouth of Baker Creek, Penn marked a spruce tree and said the line to that point would include all the land he wanted.
As time went on settlements were made beyond this point. The Indians became uneasy and wanted the matter settled. The remainder of the purchase was made in 1737, when Governor Patrick Gordon employed three of the fastest walkers he could find to complete it.
The Delaware Indians also had three men. They started at Wrightstown, Bucks County. All were under the supervision of the sheriff of that county. They took a northwesterly course. All the walkers except Edward Marshall, a famous hunter, became exhausted before the end of the time set. The distance covered was about sixty miles and the walk ended at a point in the Pocono Mountains.
From this spot a line was drawn to the Delaware River. Instead of drawing it to the nearest point on the river the surveyors said the line must meet the Delaware at right angles and so drew it to the mouth of the Lackawaxen. This took the famous hunting grounds on the Minisink away from the Indians. They had not intended to include these in the sale, and much of the trouble that came later arose from their dissatisfaction with this purchase.
From this time Marshall was an object of hatred to the Indians. Their scalping knives robbed him of his wife and all his children
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PURCHASES AND ORGANIZATION
except one little boy, who crept under a bechtive to escape them. The Indians felt that this measurement of their lands was unfair and they refused to give their consent to it. Their cruel firebrands, scalping knives and tomahawks were used in revenge without mercy upon the early settlers along the Blue Mountains.
Other purchases. Penn believed the Indians to be the real owners of the land and made many purchases from them. There are two deeds for purchases of land in Berks County in which there is special interest. One of these is dated September 7. 1732. It is from the sachem of the Schuylkill and others on behalf of themselves and all the Indians of the said nation, unto John Penn, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn. The territory contained in the grant is in part described as follows :
"All those tracts of land lying on or near the River Schuylkill, in the said province, or any of the branches, streams, fountains, or springs thereof, eastward or westward, and all the land lying in or near any swamps, marshes, fens, or meadows, the waters or streams of which flow into or toward the said Schuylkill." etc.
The amount paid for the land as mentioned in the deed is as follows:
"20 brass kettles, 100 stroudwater matchcoats of two yards each. 100 duffels do., 100 blankets. 100 yards of half tick. 60 linen shirts. 20 hats, 6 made coats, 12 pair of shoes and buckles, 30 pair of stock- ings, 300 lbs. of gunpowder, 600 lbs. of lead, 20 fine guns, 12 gun- locks, 50 tomahawks or hatchets, 50 planting hoes. 120 knives, 60 pair of scissors, 100 tobacco tongs, 24 dozen of gartering. 6 dozen of ribbons, 12 dozen of rings, 200 awl blades, 100 lbs. of tobacco, 400 tobacco pipes, 20 gallons of rum and 50 pounds in money."
August 22, 1749 is the date of the other deed. Nine different tribes of Indians deeded the land to Thomas and Richard Penn. Only a few tribes had their chiefs present to represent them at the treaty of sale. "Five hundred pounds lawful money of Pennsylvania" was the amount paid. The tract lay north of the Blue Mountains and extended from the Delaware on the cast to the Susquehanna on the west. It included the whole of what is now Schuylkill County.
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80
79
18
77
78
75
LAKE ERIE
Lake Chautauqua
PENNSYLVANIA in 1754
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SCALE OF MILES
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Sugar
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41
PURCHASE
19.
Pelin's Creek?
Shamokin
1737
Logstown
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Standing Stone
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Heidelberg
BUC
Ferry
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Lancaster
40
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Philadelphia
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CHESTERY
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19 Longitude
W'est
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Greenwich 77
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MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA, SHOWING BERKS COUNTY IN 1754.
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
OCarliale
PHILADELPHIA 5
ppe'nsburg
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R
ERSE
Bethlehem
Ft. Duquesne,
DISPUTED
WALKING
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W
-DELS
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PURCHASES AND ORGANIZATION
Conrad Weiser was the interpreter on this as on many other occa- sions.
Petitions for a county. In 1862, less than a month after the arrival of Penn, three counties, Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks, were organized. These extended to the northwest as far as the State was then settled. Lancaster was organized in 1729, York in 1749 and Cumberland in 1750.
During the first portion of the eighteenth century many settlers came into the Oley Valley along the Manatawny Creek and its branches. Among these were Germans, Swedes and English :. An- other group, mostly Welsh, settled in the Conestoga Valley. These settlements were made in what is now Amity, Oley, and Colebrook- dale. A small settlement had been made in the Tulpehocken Valley by a number of German settlers who came from New York by way of the Susquehanna River. Among these was the Weiser family.
The Quakers and the Welsh also located along the Allegheny and Wyomissing Creeks. There were thus six distinct localities that were peopled during the first twenty-five years of the century. Later the territory north of South Mountain was purchased from the Indi- ans. The Friends made the first settlement in this new region. They took up large tracts along the Maiden Creek, also called Onte- launee. Many Germans followed and soon the entire region between the South Mountains and the Blue Mountains was divided into districts for local government, so that by 1750 there were twenty districts. These districts were connected by a small number of roads. One of the most important of these extended from the Tulpehocken settlement in the west in a southerly direction, and crossed the Schuylkill at the site of the present Penn Street Bridge. A road extended from this ford to the north and south. The one to the northi was known as Maiden Creek Road and the one to the south the Schuylkill Road.
The place of meeting of these three roads thus became the site of the most flourishing town of the county. The distance from Lancaster, the place where the Court for what is now Berks County was held, was so great that as early as 1738 the citizens of the region
46
THE STORY OF BERKS COUNTY
of the northeast side of the County of Lancaster petitioned the Lieutenant Governor of the province for a new county that was to be bounded as the map accompanying the petition indicated. The principal reason stated for a new county was the distance from the court at Lancaster. A copy of the petition, signed by 172 subscribers, is still in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.
The Governor referred these petitions to the Assembly, but the Assembly took no action. The petitioners waited six years, when they sent another petition, which was again laid upon the table. A number of similar petitions were presented, and meanwhile York County was organized in 1749 and Cumberland in 1750, both out of the western portion of Lancaster. This encouraged the petitioners of Berks County, and in 1751 they presented another petition, which was read a second time and then laid over to the next meeting of the Assembly. Still they were not discouraged, and the next year they presented yet another petition.
Erection of county. The act which made it a separate county was finally passed March 11, 1752. It extended from the northern boundary of Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks, northwest to the New York State line. Of the present county the territory to the east of the Schuylkill River was taken from what was then Philadelphia County, and that on the west of the Schuylkill was taken from Chester and Lancaster Counties. On the eastern side of the river were the following divisions or townships: Albany, Alsace, Amity, Colebrookdale, Douglass, Exeter, Longswamp, Maidencreek, Maxa- tawny, Oley, Richmond and Ruscombmanor. Those on the western side were as follows: Bern, Bethel, Brecknock, Caernarvon, Cumru, Heidelberg, Robeson and Tulpehocken.
Reduction of the county. As early as 1749 settlements were extended beyond the Blue Mountains. The fork of the Susquehanna soon became an important center and what is now Sunbury was more than seventy-five miles away from Reading, the County Seat. Petitions for a county north of the Blue Mountains were numerous, and Northumberland was erected in 1772. It comprised about one-
.
3
47
PURCHASES AND ORGANIZATION
third of the State and included three-fourths of what had been Berks County. Fort Augusta, which later became Sunbury, had been an important post during the French and Indian War and was made the County Seat.
The discovery of coal in what is now Schuylkill County caused the opening of roads and canals and building of furnaces and forges and the clearing of farms. Population increased rapidly and a new county was erected March 11, 1811. Most of what is now Schuylkill was taken from Berks and the remainder from Northampton. Twenty applications have since then been made for forming other counties, which should be taken in part from Berks, but all have failed.
CHAPTER IV.
CONRAD WEISER AND COUNT ZINZENDORF.
Conrad Weiser wasborn in Germany in 1696. His father, John Conrad Weiser, who came to America with his family at the expense of Queen Ann settled at Sche- nectady, New York, in 1713. Here he was often visited by an Indian chief who proposed to take young Conrad to his wigwam. The father consented and the boy went to live with the Six Nations. He was at this time about fourteen years old.
He remained about a year when he returned to his father, who meanwhile had moved to Schoharie. In 1720 he mar- ried and in 1729, with his wife and chil- dren, he moved to Tulpehocken and lo- cated a short distance east of Womels- Conrad Weiser. dorf. Many of Weiser's friends had pre- ceded him to Tulpehocken, having found that the titles to their land at Schoharie were defective. The lands in Tulpehocken on which they settled were not purchased from the Indians until nine years later.
The Indians considered Weiser as an adopted son and when, in 1721, Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsylvania, desired to secure the friendship of the Iroquois he sent Weiser to their Council Fire. He succeeded in making a treaty with the red men and for many years thereafter was the Indian interpreter for the government.
In the year 1737, he was sent to Onondago, N. Y., at the de- sire of the governor of Virginia. He departed quite unexpectedly, toward the close of February, on a journey of five hundred miles, through a wilderness, when there was neither road nor path, and
49
CONRAD WEISER AND COUNT ZINZENDORF
at a time of the year when there was little chance of procuring food from the Indians. His only companions were a Dutchman and three Indians.
In May, 1738, he again went to Onondago, in company with Moravian missionaries, to the Indians. They suffered many hardships but experienced also some remarkable proofs of the kind Providence
HOME OF CONRAD WEISER. WOMELSDORF, PA.
of God. Having been without provisions for several days, they found a quarter of bear hung up for the use of travelers by an Indian hunter who could not carry it, according to a prevalent custom among the Indians.
At this time he had taken his residence in Reading, where he still acted as Indian agent and commissary, having extended powers granted him for that purpose. When the contest between the French and the English for the possession of the St. Lawrence and Ohio Valley began, it was Conrad Weiser who many times held the Iro- quois on the side of the English.
He was appointed a justice of the peace by the Governor of the Province in 1741. At the organization of Berks County in 1752, he was appointed one of the first judges in which capacity as president judge he acted until he died.
Nearly all his official correspondence is dated Tulpehocken or Heidelberg though he must have lived very much of his time in Reading. In 1751 he erected a building where Stichter's hardware
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